


Canvas Forest

by crownedcryptid



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Short Story, Walk, forest, thoughtful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-09-30 16:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10167155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crownedcryptid/pseuds/crownedcryptid
Summary: A depressive college student gets lost in a mysterious, monochrome world.





	

I took the wrong turn. I took the wrong turn and ended up in a place beyond my wildest nightmares.  
At least, that’s what probably happened. How else could I explain waking up alone in the driver’s seat of my wrecked car in a strange place I had never seen before?  
“My parents are going to kill me,”I murmured to myself. Yeah, of course they are but I shouldn’t worry about that. I need to figure out where I am, and how to get back to town.  
I got out of the car and tried to walk; my whole body was aching but I endured the pain, or rather, my bewilderment distracted me from it. I looked around and realized I was in a bizarre place. A forest full of colorless trees. But when I say “colorless” I don’t mean they were missing their colorful leaves, I mean they were literally black and white. Towering snow-white trunks and branches, with paper thin pitch-black leaves. The grass on the ground was the same way, everything here but me and my car was completely devoid of color.  
That isn’t normal, right? I’m no botanist but, plants like this definitely do not exist. So what’s happening here? Am I hallucinating? I placed my right hand against one of the trees. I expected my hand would go right through it, I thought maybe I’d reach too much and fall flat on my face. That would hurt, but at least it would make more sense than what was happening.  
I could feel the tree, like it was an actual tree. Not a hologram or a figment of my imagination, it was really there.  
“What the hell?” I pulled my hand back, and saw another strange phenomenon. Exactly where I placed my hand on the tree, there was a hand print, a colorful handprint. It was a vivid gradient of colors, as if I had glow-in-the-dark paint all over my hand.  
I looked down at my hand and immediately noticed it was covered in that same paint-like stuff. Then I looked closer and realized that it wasn’t paint, it was my blood. There was a huge slit in my right palm!  
I rushed over to get the first aid kit from my car; luckily it was still in there. I used some disinfectant and then wrapped my hand in gauze. That’s all I have to do right? Did I have to cauterize it? No whatever it’s fine. I’m fine.  
But, why is my blood so colorful?  
…  
Oh wait I remember, wasn’t I at a party before this...yeah that’s it. Someone must have slipped something into my drink and it didn’t affect me until I was driving home! God, what kind of jerk would do that to me? This sucks, but maybe it’s better than what would have happened if I stayed there longer.  
So now what? Should I get-the-hell-outta-here, or should I wait for this hallucinogen to wear off? Guess I should wait a little bit. I don’t want to return to civilization high as a kite. I decided to take a nap. I’m not sure how long I was out but I guess it wasn’t long enough; once I woke up the world was still topsy turvy. What gives? This can’t be real! Maybe I need extra blood-flow for this thing to wear off? In that case I’ll start walking.  
I began to traverse the path my car must have left behind when I lost control, and noticed something off. There was no path, behind my car was just more monochrome trees and grass. How? Did I phase through those trees? Did they show up after I had already crashed? What the hell!  
Well I need to get out of here somehow, walking down where I assume my car came from is my best bet. Sure it was covered with branches and roots but it must lead to the road, I began walking through. I was trying my best to look straight ahead; I didn’t want to accidently notice anymore perplexing nonsense. “Perplexing nonsense” is that a thing people say? It doesn’t sound grammatically cor-  
The sky is pitch black! Dammit, I looked around! But why is the sky like that? I can see some stars, too. Does that mean it’s nighttime? How is that even possible? I can still see everything down here as if the sun were out.  
I have quite the migraine now. If I just keep walking I will find something. Whether it’s my town or somewhere else it doesn’t matter, as long as there is color. I continued to walk for about an hour. Eventually, I saw something. No, I saw someone.  
“Hello?” I called out to the distant figure. “I'm lost. Can you help me?”  
There was no response. They probably couldn’t hear me so I moved closer. As I got closer I began to notice that I was not talking to a normal person. Whoever I was speaking to was wearing a large white robe (I am really sick of that color). I hope it’s not some kind of crazy cultist but I suppose any help is good help in this situation.  
“Excuse me?” I called out again now that I was rather close to the figure, “Can you please help me? I’m lost need to get back to-”  
Then, it turned towards me. I say it because, this definitely was not a normal human. They were very tall and their white robe covered their whole body except their face; their face was covered by a mask. A very creepy mask, like a straight up “if this were a horror movie I am the killer” sort of mask. It was a mask with big made-up eyes and lips as if it was torn off some kind of mannequin. And of course, like everything else here, the mask had two simple colors.  
“Oh, what brings you here?” it asked rather suddenly. Their voice sounded masculine and deep, but somehow friendly at the same time.  
Naturally I was creeped out but I kept my composure and answered, “I got into a bit of an accident and I really need to get back to my school.”  
“School?” It repeated. Like what, has it never heard of one before or something?  
“Uh yeah B.I.V Academy. It's around-” I was interrupted.  
“Ah yes I can help. Please follow me.”  
Well that was easier than I expected. I followed the - erm -“person” through more of this seemingly endless monochrome forest. I felt pretty awkward after a while so I asked my mysterious escort some questions.  
“So, do you live around here?”  
“Yes,” they replied with a dry tone.  
“Oh good, this whole place is pretty weird though. We’re still in Maine, right?”  
They didn’t answer me. That’s ominous, but whatever they are helping, aren’t they? I mean, for all I know this is still just part of a hallucination.  
“We have arrived,” the person said.  
I was lost in thought so I didn’t even notice we had been walking for so long. Wait a second. Where did this thing bring me? This is some sort of village, like one straight out of a fairy tale. A few dozen wooden houses and one big one in the middle, must be a church of some kind. Although unlike in happy-go-lucky fairy tales, this place was just black and white.  
“Where are we?” I asked. “This isn’t where I want to-”  
“You must rest,” the person told me. “I can bring you to your rightful place tomorrow.”  
“Tomorrow? I need to get there now! I’ve already been out here for almost a day!”  
“I do not want to disappoint you but, your school is very far from here. I strongly suggest you rest so you are prepared for the hike back.”  
“What? How long will it take to get back?”  
The thing looked directly towards me and said plainly, “Eleven point seven hours.”  
“Seriously?” I shouted. This is ridiculous! How did my car end up some place eleven-point-seven hours away from campus? And wait, why did this guy say eleven-point-seven hours? That is super specific. Do a bunch of people from school get lost here? Whatever, all this thinking is doing is making my head hurt even more. I guess I’ll just rest like they said.  
My robed escort brought me into the big church-like building in the center of the village, and into some kind of dormitory within. On the way in there we walked past several other people, several other white robed mannequin-mask-wearing people. I...definitely got myself involved with some sort of cult, huh. Whatever, I just need to sleep, wake up, get home, and store this experience in the deepest cavities of my brain.  
So I slept, surprisingly well. I don’t quite remember what I dreamt about but I recall that it was colorful. Man, I really haven’t been out here for THAT long but seeing nothing but black and white all over is taking a toll on me. I have to get out of here. What if I died in the crash and this place is just hell, my own personal colorless hell. No that’s crazy. But...I am still here after all this time so it is not a hallucination; this is real life. Whatever, I was told I am going back home so I have nothing to worry about.  
Just as I was getting up from bed, someone entered the room. Of course it was just another robed person. It was a different person from the one who brought me here the other day, this one had a calm feminine voice.  
“Please come with me,” they told me.  
“Alright,” I replied., “You’re taking me back to town now, right?”  
“Soon. First we must show you something.”  
I was confused but I just went along with it.  
I followed the, I guess I should just call them “cultists” at this point, outside. They brought me to another building, a pretty small one. The inside of this building was completely empty aside from some lit torches and a huge gate-like door that covered almost the entire back wall. What is this, the portal back to my rightful dimension?  
“Before you return home,” the mysterious thing began to explain, “I must show you what my culture has been developing. It is a pinnacle in existential achievement, and since travelers tend to stay away from us, we try to share our achievement with anyone we can.”  
“Ok,” I replied. Pinnacle in existential achievement? Is there some kind of doomsday weapon or giant robot behind this door? I guess that would explain why they are hiding in the woods, and why “travelers tend to stay away”.  
The cultist turned a circular crank device and opened the door revealing, a forest. But not just any forest, a lush forest brimming with color. Color? Haven’t seen that stuff in a while. But, why is color on the other side of the door? And it’s not just any color, the forest is filled with incredibly vibrant, almost unreal, colors. As if the whole thing was a living painting. The cultist walked into the forest and I followed.  
“This place is...this place is incredible,” I said, and that’s really all I could say. I had gone for so long trapped in a black and white world, and now all of a sudden I was in color wonderland.  
“Isn’t it?” they replied, “My people have worked so hard to get it this way.”  
That’s a strange thing to say, “Your people made this place?” I asked. “How?”  
“We painted it of course.”  
“Painted?”  
“This area used to look just as bleak and soulless as the outside where we live, but my people transformed it into an oasis of color.”  
That answer just gave me more questions, and the one I asked first, should have been one I kept to myself.  
“How were you guys able to get colored paint if everything here is monochrome?” That’s a dumb question. I should have asked “Why don’t you guys live out here where there is color?” or something. Something that would have given me a simple answer.  
“We get paint from travelers like you,” was my answer.  
Well sorry to disappoint, whoever the hell you are, but I don’t carry paint with me at all times. I was about to say something like that aloud but I noticed, the cultist was staring down at my right hand.  
At that moment it all clicked, I felt my stomach drop. When I was bleeding earlier my blood was multicolored...so their blood must be multicolored too, right? Y-Yeah that’s it, they take blood from their deceased cult members and use it as paint for this room. That’s absolutely disgusting but, but I guess if the dead people are part of cult they’re alright with it. There’s no way they-  
“You are our new bucket,” the cultist said suddenly.  
“I’m sorry what did you say?” I thought they called me a bucket for a second there, must have misheard-  
“You are our new bucket, and with your paint we will continue creating our new vivid world.”  
“My paint? You mean my blood?”  
“Ah yes, blood, that’s what your kind calls it. I almost forgot that.”  
“What? Why the hell do you need my blood? My blood is red!” Well that was a lie, it is supposed to be red but this place transformed it.  
The cultist was suddenly furious, “It does not matter if it is red or orange or brown! It is a splendid color as long as it isn’t this putrid white!” then they pulled out a knife from their sleeve.  
They charged at me like a serial killer. I managed to dodge out of the way, but just barely. I turned around and ran back towards the door we used to enter. Once I got in I rapidly began to spin the crank to close the door, but my attacker managed to slip through. Just as they entered, the front door to the building opened and in came a mob of cultists, all armed with knives. How did they know to come? I suppose I’m not dealing with ordinary people here. I was cornered. This is the end, I’m gonna die without saying goodbye to anyone I care about, without graduating, without-without-without-NO!  
It won’t end like this. I looked around, torches. There are torches all over this room, and there was one right next to me. Why didn’t I grab that ear-I snatched the torch and jammed it against the closest attacker. They burned away instantly and let out a foul shriek. These things are not human. At that moment they all quickly tried to impale me, some sliced me a bit and it hurt like hell but my adrenaline made it easy to ignore the pain. I swung my torch across them all and managed to create a fire that spread throughout the room. All my blood hungry attackers were scorched away, it was disturbing sight. Some of their masks fell off and I got a glimpse of what I was really dealing with; these cultists were demons. That was really the only word that could describe what I saw. Both their appearance and their plan, were completely demonic.  
I escaped the now-burning village as I bled through several wounds and found a spot in the woods to rest.  
Why was I caught up in all of this? How did I get here? How will I get home?  
How will I ever see color again?  
I begrudgingly woke up after being unconscious, and began to find a way out this nightmare. It hurt to walk, it hurt to breath, it hurt to do anything. I think the only thing keeping me alive was willpower. I can’t give up, but why can’t I? What’s waiting for me back in the real world? All I could think of was color. I tried to think of other things like my friends and family, but I just couldn’t, I hardly had any. I’ve lost so much blood, I’m leaving behind a trail of beautiful gradients as I stumble through these tree roots.  
I managed to reach my car, somehow. Not like I can drive anywhere with these trees all over the place. I laid back on the hood of my busted car, to wait for the inevitable. This is the end for me, I can see a light right now. It’s getting closer, no wait, it’s just getting larger. I’m not moving towards it, it’s just right there in front of me. Suppose I have to walk into it, I hurled myself off the car and approached the bright vortex of light before me. I walked through and found myself in a familiar place. It wasn’t heaven, but it sure seemed like it. I was just in my bed, in my dorm, waking up. I felt the pain fading away. There’s no way that was dream, it was too real. Was it some kind of spiritual journey? Did some entity through me into an alternate, dangerous reality to teach me something. I want to know but I’m probably better off staying in the dark.  
As I tried to get up from bed I noticed the floor was covered with dozens of crumbled papers. I unraveled a few, they had pencil sketches of trees on them. I drew all these, I remember now. I was trying to create a masterpiece but everytime I tried it would look dreadful. I wanted draw some beautiful forest scenery but could create garbage, horrific garbage. After that ridiculous and possibly subconscious adventure, I finally know. What my art was missing, what my life has been missing, was one simple thing.  
Color.


End file.
